Shell Key

8 hours

Shell Key

Duration

8 Hours

About

Shell Key Preserve is a jewel-in-the-rough that few people take the time to experience. A 1,828-acre archipelago at the mouth of Tampa Bay off Florida’s Gulf Coast, Shell Key Preserve is frequented primarily by birds and other wildlife. For people to get there, they must take a boat to Shell Key, the biggest piece of dry land in the preserve.

Once they arrive on the key, people are limited to the southern end of the little island. The rest of the preserve is reserved for wildlife because it’s one of the state’s most important areas for shorebird nesting and overwintering.

Birds seen in the preserve year-round include wading species such as the reddish egret, great blue heron, great egret and snowy egret, as well as gulls, terns, black skimmers and Wilson’s plovers.

At 195 acres, Shell Key is one of the largest undeveloped barrier islands in St. Pete/Clearwater. The rest of the preserve, stretching from the key east to the Pinellas Bayway, consists of 10 or so small mangrove islands and shallow waters with extensive seagrass beds that are crucial nurseries for many sea life species. Sea turtles’ nest and hatch in the preserve from May 1 to Sept. 30

Things to keep in mind